As always, here's what is going on throughout the college hockey landscape. This week's stock report recaps who is doing well, who is on their way down, and what trends should be followed.
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| Photo credit: Ohio State Hockey |
Up: Being Able To Read Ohio State's Numbers
For a second consecutive year, Ohio State unveiled black sweaters against Minnesota. For a second consecutive year, Ohio State wore the black sweaters in both October games.
And for the first time, I can read the numbers on Ohio State's black sweaters.
After last year's illegal uniforms (link), the Buckeyes made sure version 2 can be read. Ohio State can continue to want to be Darth Vader (Link) and pull off continuing to give Minnesota fits on and off the ice. (The Gophers also wore gold third sweaters in Friday's game, which saw OSU defeat the previously undefeated Gophers.) At this point, I wouldn't expect anything other than these every time Ohio State faces Minnesota.
After all, it's working.
Down: Boston College
What a difference two weeks make.
The highest thought "super freshman" team preseason - compared to some of the others - opened with a pair of wins. Now, Boston College has lost three straight games with the latest coming in a 6-2 loss to Providence seeing Jack Dugan score off Spencer Knight's mask.
— PC Men's Hockey (@FriarsHockey) October 26, 2019It's not the end of the world for the Eagles, but also a reminder that one good weekend does not equal season-long problems being solved. BC's freshmen class is super, however, none are superheroes.
Hold: Other "Super Freshmen" Teams
And speaking of "super freshmen" classes, it's been a mix of good and bad weeks. Michigan, coming off a sweep of Lake Superior State, had a home-and-home split with Western Michigan where the home team won each game. Boston University had a road tie against UMass Lowell and win over New Hampshire to go to 2-1-2.
Wisconsin was sent back to earth from its 11 place jump up the #pohls with a shutout loss to Clarkson before rebounding to win a game it led 3-0 in the final 10 seconds. If anything, this weekend's a good reminder of where the Badgers, and the others, find themselves. There's plenty of young talent - Cole Caufield leads NCAA men's players with 7 goals - and can beat good teams (Michigan shutting out Western told the story), but it's the older players (i.e. BU's Patrick Harper) helping lead the way. The Badgers, without the 5th overall pick, possess the talent to pull off a comeback win and also the inexperience to allow a three-goal lead to disappear against a top team.
That's a perfect summary of October. As other teams are slowly showing who they are, there's enough here to hold on all three of these squads.
Down: Minnesota's unbeaten streak against Minnesota Duluth
This time around, the Gophers did not come back from an early 1-0 deficit. After doing so each of the past three games, UMD made Minnesota pay in a home-and-home series between the two University of Minnesota program schools. Saturday's early goal in Duluth was enough to hold off Minnesota thanks to a Hunter Shepard shutout.
Minnesota Duluth's pair of wins also were two more than the Bulldogs, whose nine-game unbeaten streak was snapped in last year's rout at Mariucci, had all last season against Minnesota after going 0-1-1.
Up: Minnesota Duluth's winning streak in Buffalo
Harborcenter was home to the women's hockey Ice Breaker, which for a second straight college hockey tournament saw Minnesota Duluth claim the title. The Bulldogs go 4-0 in 2019 in Buffalo.
Hold: AIC's regular-season non-conference losing streak
UMass took home the battle of Western Massachusetts, defeating American International 4-1 to advance to 4-1-0. For the Yellow Jackets, the result drops the team to 1-3-0 and 0-3 in non-conference play. It's a familiar place for AIC, who went 0-8 in non-conference last season before getting its first win in the NCAA Tournament.
Sadly Down: Wade Allison's health
Once again, injuries hamper the Broncos senior, who missed both games against Michigan. Seeing Allison not even make it to the end of October after the past two seasons of injuries is a sad sight. When healthy, he's a top college hockey player on a Western Michigan team with plenty of talent. The key? "When healthy."
Up: Daryl Watts' 2017-18 form
As a freshman at Boston College, Watts led the nation in goals and points en route to becoming the first rookie to win the Patty Kazmaier Award. She had 7 more points than any other player.
At the end of October, the now-Wisconsin junior looks to be en route to leading the nation once more. To be fair, the undefeated Badgers made the most of facing a first-year LIU program and playing ten games- the top three point-getters all hail from Mark Johnson's team - but Watts stands out. Her 28 points (9G-19A) are 11 more than any other player not on the Badgers and on pace to smash her 2.16 PPG during her Patty Kazmaier Award-winning season.
Up: Crazy s*** happening to Alaska
At this point, it's going to be out of the ordinary if Alaska ends up with a normal weekend.
The Nanooks are currently held up at the Seawolf Sports Complex waiting to be allowed into their locker room because of a swimming class. And it’s 90 minutes to puck drop.— Nanooks Hockey Blog (@NanookHockey) October 26, 2019
That might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard off in hockey.
Up: Logan Drackett of RIT
Two seasons ago, no full-time goaltender had a worse save percentage than Drackett. As of today, no goaltender playing more than 33% of its games has a better save percentage than the RIT junior, whose .966% save percentage is one reason why the Tigers jumped out to a 5-1-0 start. The latest two happened this weekend in a pair of low scoring - 2-1 and 1-0 - road victories against Air Force.
Down: Both 2018-19 Ferris State goaltenders performing well
One of the downfalls of October is the small sample size of stats and avoiding getting sucked into a large picture trend at this time of year. What works one weekend may not the next.
One example would be the past and current Ferris State goaltenders. Last weekend saw past FSU goaltender Justin Kapelmaster, who graduate transferred to Robert Morris, and current FSU goaltender Roni Salmenkangas hold the top-two save percentages nationally. Kapelmaster remains second. However, Salmenkangas went from a nation-leading .968% save percentage to .896% after doubling his games and being swept by Northern Michigan.
That's October for you.
Who Won The Week:
Second Runner-Up: Mel Pearson at Western if any video existed
Continuing the home-and-home fun with Michigan and Western Michigan, Wolverines head coach Mel Pearson apparently had some Kesselian fun with the Lawson Lunatics
A recap of the Mel situation:— Bailey Johnson (@BaileyAJohnson_) October 27, 2019
1. He was mad at a call at the end of the first, challenged it.
2. Stayed out to wait for the ruling, left the ice to a chorus of boos.
3. Came back to more boos, pointed at himself and waved.
4. Hopped on the bench and bowed.
Maybe this would be higher if there was any video. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be.
Mel Pearson puts on a show at Lawson, and this is what you see on the @WMUHockey https://t.co/c4kf2GOo1W feed: https://t.co/3WhgR76yze pic.twitter.com/WhdP8ouU2O— Matt Wellens (@mattwellens) October 27, 2019
First Runner-Up: Ivy League first impressions
The first weekend of play for the Ivy League women's teams saw several players get out of the gate quickly. Three of the weekend's four players to score four came from the Ivies in Princeton's Carly Bullock and Yale's Ellie Hartje and Charlotte Welch. (The fourth? Minnesota's Grace Zumwinkle.)
Winner: Monty
There's plenty to discuss with Notre Dame, who at times feels like a forgotten team among the Big Ten and national contenders. The Fighting Irish head to conference play 4-0-0 with a sweep of a Lake Superior State team that is better than its 2-6 record indicates. Mike O'Leary has had the best two weekends of his career while Cal Burke led all players nationally this weekend with 7 points (2G-5A).
Notre Dame didn't even have Cale Morris for the first three games. The 2018 Mike Richter Award winner only made his season debut on Saturday.
But the reason for the Fighting Irish being winners of the week? Monty.
This is Monty. He dropped the puck for us tonight. 14/10 will invite back for more games#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/hbiibSHsOL— Notre Dame Hockey (@NDHockey) October 26, 2019
The weekend had plenty of dog talk between a battle of the Huskies in St. Cloud. However, as far as I know, no Husky dropped the opening puck drop in a series made for one. (Also, when will the all-Huskies tournament between St. Cloud State, Northeastern, Michigan Tech, and UConn happen? It should happen.) Monty dropping the puck was cooler than the alternate world where Teddy Roosevelt's Roughriders are the North Dakota mascot.
For being a very good hockey dog, Monty has won this week.
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